


In a Name

by Ray_Writes



Series: Tumblr Prompts [22]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-28
Updated: 2018-03-28
Packaged: 2019-04-13 23:11:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14122887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ray_Writes/pseuds/Ray_Writes
Summary: A misunderstanding on their latest trip has Donna thinking twice about a certain habit of the Doctor's.





	In a Name

**Author's Note:**

> So this was another one of those sentence prompts I finally got around to finishing for an anonymous tumblr user. Sorry about the wait!

For once, everything had ended rather well, and Donna was enjoying a nice chat with Turaena, one of the locals of the planet they had stopped by this particular day.

“Oh, we’re sure to be off any minute now,” Donna said when asked if she and her best friend might consider staying another night. “The Doctor never sticks around anywhere long. But you can’t blame him. There’s so much to see out there!”

“Well, I know I am grateful the two of you decided to see and help us,” Turaena told her.

Donna shook her head. “Oh, that’s alright. It’s just what we do.”

“Donna!” The Doctor’s voice called, loud and clear despite being nowhere in sight. “ _ Donna _ !”

“That’s me taking too long, then,” she remarked with an eye roll. “I swear he’s the most impatient man in the universe.”

“ _ Donnaaaaaaa! _ ”

She turned in the general direction she’d heard him. “I’m coming, keep your shirt on!” Donna looked back round. “Sorry, don’t mind him.”

“It sounds very urgent.”

“Oh, that’s just how he gets,” she dismissed. “He’s keen on us leaving, you know?”

Turaena’s head had tilted to the side, and her rather bulbous eyes blinked in puzzlement. “I’m not sure I understand. Is this a mating call on your Earth?”

Donna’s mouth dropped open, and her cheeks grew very hot. “A- a mating—no! No, absolutely not. Oh, my God.” She wasn’t sure whether to laugh or not. “No, that’s just how he says my name. Sometimes.”

Turaena eyed her doubtfully. “Not to signify—”

“Nope,” Donna replied before she could finish. She half-turned to run and threw a hasty, “Lovely meeting you!” over her shoulder.

Scarpering off all flustered probably wasn’t helping her case, a voice in the back of her mind pointed out. Donna ducked her head and ran a little faster.

The Doctor was waiting for her in front of the doors, his face lighting up at her approach. “Off we go, then!” He allowed her in first, hurrying right behind her. She was probably imagining the breath on the back of her neck, but was personal space so much to ask? No wonder people assumed they were fooling around in here!

Donna darted to the side once they reached the console, and the Doctor thankfully moved away from her to start the dematerialization process. It really was a good thing he wasn’t one to linger; she wouldn’t be able to show her face on that planet for another hundred years after that misunderstanding.

Still, she knew if she stayed quiet much longer he’d be bound to ask what was bothering her. “Not a bad outing.”

That got her a grin. “Not bad at all. So, what’s your fancy? Another trip? Quiet night? Actually—” he paused in his piloting “—are you feeling alright?”

Since she’d turned to face him she couldn’t miss him leaning in close to scrutinize her. “Course I am. Why?”

“You’re a bit, uh, pinker than usual. I don’t think that sun should have been any more intense than Earth’s.”

Oh God, she hadn’t lost the blush.

“I’m fine.”

“Donna,” the Doctor began. Did he ever quit?

“And I hope you know that my name is actually Donna and not  _ Donnaaaaaaaaaa _ ,” she said, dragging the last syllable out as long as she could before running out of breath.

The Doctor cast her a funny look, face all scrunched up. “Not sure I’m following. That’s the same name, isn’t it? Donna.  _ Donnaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa _ ,” he demonstrated both, tongue poking almost out of his mouth as he held onto the last syllable even longer. Bloody respiratory bypass. Bloody tongue.

“Yeah, but nobody else says it like that,” she snapped.

The Doctor blinked. “Do you want more people to?”

Donna stared at him.

“Or...do you not want me to?” He guessed.

“I- I don’t know,” she admitted, suddenly aware she hadn’t exactly had a plan when going into this conversation. Just that she’d been embarrassed. And why had she let herself get embarrassed? Turaena’s question had been mostly innocent, and it didn’t matter because it wasn’t true.

She’d never been self-conscious of how he said her name before. She’d even liked it, maybe, if she thought about it—though not liked it like  _ that _ . That sort of  _ mating _ nonsense wasn’t supposed to be her; as if.

Donna turned away. “Never mind.”

But of course he was fretting now. “Does it upset you? Because I don’t do it to upset you or make you uncomfortable,” he added, and she stopped.

“Then why do you do it?” Donna asked, unable to help her curiosity now that he’d brought up the idea of a  _ reason _ behind it.

When she glanced back at him, however, it was the Doctor who appeared to not have a ready answer this time. “Well, I—it’s a brilliant name for one thing. Donna. Donna Noble.”

She shook her head, gaze falling to the grating. She could never quite meet his eyes when he got all ridiculous like this.

“And I suppose I like having the opportunity to say it,” he continued before she could declare him daft. “Because it means you’re here with me.”

Donna surprised herself by abruptly looking back up in shock at his admission. The Doctor was rubbing at the back of his neck, clearly not used to allowing that much sentiment to show.

“Are you sure you’re alright? You’re all pink again,” he pointed out in an obvious attempt at distraction.

Not that he was wrong. Though she felt more effused with a warmth that bloomed in her cheeks rather than overheating from mortification.

“No, I’m not alright.” Donna stepped forward and put her arms around him. “I’m brilliant.”

He had moved immediately to reciprocate her hug, and so she heard his voice in her ear as he made one last check, “Not under the weather?”

“I’m under something,” she mumbled into his shoulder. His spell, maybe.

“What was that?”

Donna shook her head. She had enough sense still not to say that loud enough for him to properly hear.

“ _ Donnaaaaa _ ,” he cajoled her, and an involuntary shiver went through her which she had no hope of hiding with them so close together. It really wasn’t decent, his voice all quiet and low like that, breath on the shell of her ear.

Donna backed out of his hold before he could try to ask. “Think I will take the quiet night, Spaceman.”

His arms took a moment to fall back to his sides, and she swore he gave himself a little shake as if to come back to figurative Earth. “Right, Vortex it is!”

She used the opportunity of him turning his back while working the controls to slip out of the console room. With some time and space to herself, she’d have all this fancy and fuss under control. The whole thing would be behind them and everything would be back to normal.

Though his questioning call yet again of “Donnaaaaaaaaaa?” upon noticing her absence and the little skip her heart seemed to do in response wasn’t helping her believe that any.

God, maybe Turaena wasn’t completely off the mark after all.


End file.
